This invention relates to a packaged assembly of disposable diapers and more specifically, to a packaged assembly in which a plurality of disposable diapers are orderly packed within a package so that these diapers may be placed one upon another.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-42028A discloses an example of the packaged assembly of disposable diapers and more specifically to a packaged assembly in which a plurality of pull-on disposable diapers each comprising a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-absorbent core disposed between these two sheets, in which the diapers are packed within the package so as to be placed one upon another in a back and forth direction with front and rear waist regions of each pair of the adjacent diapers being opposed to each other. Within the package, each of the diapers arranged in such manner to form a row has its waist's end portion lying on the side of the package's top surface and its crotch region's bottom lying on the side of the package's bottom surface.
In most of the disposable diaper, the liquid-absorbent core does not extend to the waist-surrounding end portions of the front and rear waist regions and therefore the remaining portion of the diaper except the waist-surrounding end portions has a thickness larger than that of those waist-surrounding end portions. Particularly when the crotch regions' bottom of the respective diapers are folded toward the respective rear waist regions to pack the diapers in the case of the above-cited Publication, the thickness of the remaining portions except for the waist-surrounding end portions will be remarkably larger than the thickness of these waist-surrounding end portions.
According to the packaged assembly as disclosed in the above-cited Publication, a total thickness of a row formed by a plurality of diapers placed one upon another in the back and forth direction is larger on the package's bottom space than on the side of the package's top surface. In other words, even if the diapers are packed so as to occupy the maximum dimension in the back and forth direction of the package on the side of the package's bottom surface, a gap will be left between each the waist-surrounding end portions of the diapers adjacent to each other and efficiency for packing the diapers into the package will be deteriorated. Furthermore, such well-known packaged assembly is inconvenient in that the waist's end portions of the diaper lying on the side of the package's top surface are readily bent when a plurality of the packages are stacked in a vertical direction. Consequently, a stability of such stack can not be expected and there is an anxiety that such stack of the packages might unintentionally collapse.
In addition, when two or more rows of the diapers are stacked within one and same package, the upper row of the diapers may flatten or collapse the waist-surrounding end portions of the diapers forming the lower row and form these waist-surrounding end portions of the diapers with a plurality of irregular wrinkles.